The cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday cleared the proposed Electric Vehicle Policy which offers financial incentives for manufacturers and even purchasers besides interest subvention in loan and waiver of road tax.
Though details of the policy were not released, chief secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said the move is to incentivize and promote Electric Vehicles to achieve 20 percent battery electric vehicles in all vehicle registrations by 2025.
The policy has the required facilitation for the manufacture of electric vehicles and their components in the state and facilitates research and development in the sector, he said.
Under the proposed policy guidelines, it has been decided to extend financial incentives to manufacturers, purchase incentives, scrapping incentives, waiver of road tax and registration fees, interest subvention in loan, he informed.
In another major decision, the state cabinet cleared the ‘Odisha Sand Policy, 2021’.
Salient features of the policy are demand-supply estimation, identification of sources, DGPS survey of sand sairat sources, auction of sand mining rights, Mining Plan (MP), Environment Clearance (EC), and other statutory clearances.
Mohapatra informed that quarrying operation, interstate transportation of sand, and monitoring and enforcement are also part of the policy which has been drawn up in accordance with the environmental regulations.
The state will ensure an adequate supply of sand for developmental and welfare projects, private construction works and prevent the scope of illegal mining of sand, and ensure a robust monitoring mechanism for sand mining, he said.
The policy emphasis is on IT-based regulation of the sand mining from identification of the source to the final end-users, he said